In a saucepan, combine the Guinness and 1/4 cup of the brown sugar. Bring to a boil, then reduce to medium heat, stirring frequently, until the mixture has reduced and is thick and syrupy (about 20-30 minutes). You should have just over 1/3 cup left once reduced. Transfer to a bowl and cool slightl, this will help it to thicken as well.

While the beer is reducing you can sift together the flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl. I forgot to bring my sifter to the boys house so I had to improvise with a mesh strainer.

In your mixer, or mixing bowl, beat the butter, granulated sugar, and remaining 1/2 cup of brown sugar together on medium speed until light and fluffy.

One at a time, add the eggs and the egg yolk, beating well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla. With the mixer on low, slowly add the cooled Guinness syrup and beat until incorporated.

Using a small cookie scoop/ice cream scoop, scoop the dough on top the cookie sheet. Place them about two inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for about 18 minutes (rotating the baking sheets halfway through), or until the edges are set. I like mine crispy with a soft center, you can feel this when you check on your cookies, if they give too much when you tap the top then give them a bit more baking time.

These cookies are soft like brownies but they have the crispy edges that I like!

My friend Lesline is graduating Nursing school and asked me if I would make cookies for her graduation party! I was so excited for her to graduate and I was excited that she asked! She found a picture online of what she wanted the cookies to look like, they were scrubs and hearts with a life line. I used my sugar cookies recipe that I used for my halloween cookies.

I was really happy with how they turned out!

Lesline was so excited about them and they were a hit at her graduation party!

Halloween is my favorite Holliday! Maria and I got all settled into our new place just in time to throw a halloween party! Pinterest provided plenty of inspiration.

Growing up Halloween was always special at our house, my mom always went all out with decorations and for the first 5 or 6 years made my sister and I’s costumes! I found a lot of inspiration from Pinterest but there’s one thing I was always impressed with from my childhood. The witches cauldron!

Start with a medium (size varies by your table size, party size, and how much punch you might need) plastic witches cauldron, you can find these at party city.

Add dry ice to your cauldron. Be careful with the dry ice!!! It is dangerous and can cause severe burns! Use thick gloves or metal tongs to handle the ice. And place a plastic punch bowl inside.

When ready, create your punch and add to the punch bowl, then pour hot water into the cauldron around your punch bowl where the dry ice is. This will cause the dry ice to start fogging up and look really cool! Add hot water as needed when the fog dies down, it will cause it to fog back up.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees then start to roll out dough, one third at a time, on a lightly floured surface. Using a cookie cutter dipped in flour, cut out cookies as close together as possible.

Place cookies on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until bottoms of cookies are a light golden brown. I find the cookies are best a little under baked. Cool completely before moving or icing the cookies.

I used a simple royal icing to decorate my cookies for the Halloween party.

Royal Icing

3 Tbsp Meringue Powder
4 cups Confectioners’ Sugar
6 Tbsp Warm Water

Add all ingredients to a bowl and mix until smooth. Separate into individual bowls and add food coloring if desired.

For the party Henry was Eyore and I was a witch!

Here are all of our decorations and some pictures from the party! It was a lot of fun and the cookies were a big hit!

Lately I have been drinking oatmeal breakfast smoothies which had me think about oatmeal raisin cookies, which I love! Thinking about oatmeal raisin cookies, I realized they have cinnamon in them, and cinnamon is one of the spices in chai tea. Chai is my favourite tea! I thought what if I use chai tea as a spice instead of just cinnamon! I love finding new ways to incorporate tea into my cooking and baking! And that is exactly what I did! My room mate doesn’t like oatmeal raisin so she suggested using chocolate chips instead of the raisins, but I love the raisins here, we settled by adding both! Which was perfect because I had just enough chocolate chips left in the pantry to throw them in. Picture to come:

To start these cookies you need to brown the butter and give it enough time to cool back to a solid/consistency of softened butter (without using the fridge * this is crucial!). To brown the butter, in a sauce pan, over medium/low heat (depending on your stove, I have a gas stove so I used low), combine:

1 cup of unsalted butter
4 tbsp of your favourite loose leaf chai tea

Let the butter melt and and simmer for about 5 minutes or until butter becomes a beautiful hazelnut colour (be careful not to burn it!). Once browned remove the butter from the heat and add the chai tea, allow to steep for about 5 minutes. Strain the chai from your butter (if you aren’t using a steeper) using fine mesh strainer or coffee filter. Let your chai infused butter sit until it becomes solid again.

While the butter is cooling, mix together the dry ingredients in medium bowl.

Once the butter has become solid again, whip the butter and sugars together until light and creamy, followed by the eggs and vanilla. Add your dry ingredients a little at a time and mix until well combined. By hand, stir in raisins and chocolate chips.

Preheat your oven to 375° F I usually don’t preheat my oven until I’m done mixing all ingredients, and right before I plop the cookies onto the cookie sheet, use your judgement by how long it takes to preheat your oven. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, sometimes I use butter to keep my cookies from sticking, but parchment is cleaner. Scoop out your cookies and bake for 12 minutes. * If you want grind a couple of table spoons of chai tea in a spice grinder and sprinkle on top of the cookies before baking, for a little bit more chia, I can never get enough!* Take them out of the oven, and let them sit for six minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

These cookies came out of the oven perfect for me, soft in the middle with a little crunch on the edges! They were sooooo yummy! I think the chocolate chips over powered the raisins so next time I think I’ll add more raisins and a little less chocolate chips.